For
Hollywood executives in charge of running the world's biggest entertainment
factories, 2014 turned out to be the most anxiety-inducing ever. The summer was
an unsettling one in which the box office take for the season was down 25% from
the previous year. To top it off, entertainment business execs wound up the
year by having to endure the day-to-day news of a major studio, Sony,
attempting to cope with a crushing cyber-attack that was launched over the
content of a film. Regarding the 2014 box office as a whole, revenues ended up
being down 5% from the prior year. In terms of movie choices, the public, via
the free market, sent some clear but perhaps not-so-welcome messages to
Hollywood. [more...]

The
FBI accused the North Korean government last week of perpetrating the
devastating cyberattacks against Sony's computer network for which a group
calling itself the Guardians of Peace took responsibility. The North Korean
government denied the charge and warned of serious consequences if the United
States launched any counter-attack. President Obama ignored the threat,
declaring that the U.S. would respond "proportionally" to what he
characterized as cyberspace "vandalism." [more...]

Even
before the Indonesia Air Asia flight with 162 people on board went missing, the
year 2014 has seemed ominous for air transportation disasters. Despite this
insinuation, data shows that some 762 people had lost their lives in seven
fatal accidents this year, more than 1,000 lost their lives in 2005 ultimately
proving that aviation is still the safest route to travel by. Even better,
experts say that the industry’s underlying safety record is actually improving.
The statistics underscore a year of tragic contrasts dominated by two Malaysian
catastrophes and a handful of weather-related incidents, yet a record-low
number of crashes. [more...]

How Corrupt is Our Political
Class? Has This Corruption and Rot Spread into the American Leadership Class?

How
corrupt is our political class? Has this corruption seeped into the American
leadership class – in all our institutions, i.e. education, business, religion,
the media, etc.? How weak is American leadership today in the world? As mayhem
spreads, does the United States even have a leadership position anymore? This –
and much more – will be discussed by the POLITICAL INSIDERS. [more...]

As
much as each country, from the U.S. to Greece, Russia to Malaysia, sees itself
as a unique and independent entity, the reality is that the world has been
united as one big Keynesian experiment. Social media has taken significant
events that normally would be continually discussed, analyzed and even become
world altering and reduced them to tweets, blogs and yesterday's news. Although
the world’s attention via social media is always directed to the newest crisis,
the reality is that nothing in the past has either been solved or eliminated.
Another few days and the next crisis will be front and center; it will be time
to put all these past problems behind us – after all it’s a new year. [more...]

Some
estimates place the commercial value of the use of the new drone technology at
over $10B over the next decade. That might be a very conservative
estimate too, since the technology can be used in so many different
ways. Plus, just think about spin-off technologies and their
values. For example, new drone-ready GPS technology will likely be used,
resulting in additional revenues and profits. A whole new billion dollar
industry? New jobs? New innovation? A boost for GDP?
Better services for consumers? Cool technology, right? American
ingenuity at work building 21st century America? But, why not do the
R&D in America? [more...]

The
media is full of Senator Dianne Feinstein’s report on "enhanced
interrogation tactics" used by the CIA after 9/11, in particular
waterboarding, which the Senator has defined as "torture." Please!
Torture is what the Gestapo did in World War II. I should know. During the war,
I was recruited into the Polish resistance at age 12. When I was 14, I was
arrested by the Gestapo. Throughout the war, the Germans who invaded and
occupied my native Poland routinely tortured not only those who fought against
them physically but anyone they believed to be their enemy - including women
and children. [more...]

No
country in history has survived with open borders. A welfare state (like today's
America under Obama) that allows in millions of poor, desperate, uneducated
illegal immigrants with open hands and open mouths, looking for cradle-to-grave
welfare, can never survive. Obama won't tell you what illegal immigration has
done to California's budget: the massive increase in the cost of police, courts
and prisons. He won't mention the destruction of public schools or the massive
welfare debt turning California into a bankrupt hellhole like Greece — or
Detroit. He won't mention that California's taxes are now among the
highest in the nation because of the costs of illegal immigration. [more...]

There
is apparently no love lost between Sony Pictures and the Obama administration
these days. The fingers of blame have been pointing back and forth, while the
barbs between the studio and the president have continued to fly amid a bona
fide national security crisis, which happens to have a real villain, North
Korea. During his year-end news conference, Pres. Obama chided Sony, joining in
with countless critics of the movie studio’s decision to cancel the release of
the film "The Interview," which had been scheduled for a Christmas
Day debut. Sony, however, seems to be questioning the veracity of the president's
statement at the press conference. [more...]

Since
the FBI accused North Korea as being the culprit behind the Sony hack, North
Korea has vehemently denied the accusations. In fact, North Korea is now so far
on the defensive that the country has refused to partake in an unprecedented UN
Security Council meeting that was supposed to discuss North Korea’s domineering
and overbearing control over its people’s human rights. This year more than
ever has brought the communist country’s capital, Pyongyang into the spotlight.
While there have always been rumors of its government’s crimes against
humanity, this is the first time their supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, could end
up being held accountable for the alleged crimes escaped North Koreans have
been accusing both their current ruler, as well as his predecessors of doing to
their country’s people for years. There is a high probability that the dire
situation in the half-starved nation of North Korea will be brought to the
International Criminal Court - a court reserved for the darkest acts against
humanity. [more...]

The Sony hacking raises many unanswered questions for me.
First of all, why do so many Hollywood "stars" continue to come to
the defense against the attack on American corporations? This leads U.S.
politicians to follow suit by stating "our companies will not be bullied."
This is admirable on both parts but it can be considered self-serving for the
silver screen types when their livelihoods get cancelled and Washingtonians are
looking for their own twenty minutes of fame on the Sunday morning talk shows. [more...]

The
decision to "normalize relations with Cuba" by the current
administration has been called "another concession to tyranny."
Why is this decision bad for freedom and good for tyranny? For one thing,
America is the beacon for hope for oppressed people around the world.
This decision makes it look like America is abandoning its strong support and
encouragement for freedom. America has a long history of living in freedom and
supporting freedom. America lives under a Constitution that protects
freedom. This decision does not support freedom. Rather, it says
tyranny will be rewarded and will not have to give up its dictatorial policies
to be recognized by America. [more...]

I was at S####cuts the other day and noticed that there were NO
Christmas or holiday decorations. When I asked them why, I was told the
corporate office says there is not to be any type of celebration of the
Christmas or holiday season. Why is that (even though you could buy a little
gift card with a snowman on it) confusing? "We might offend someone,"
they replied. Well, you just did. Me! And I make up 72% of Americans who say
they believe in God and an even larger number who say they are
not offended when offered a Merry Christmas in a genuine way. [more...]

The
size and scope of the recent hack of Sony Pictures is an unprecedented event in
the US for such a major company. Several news headlines about hacking incidents
this past year have led me to perceive cyber security and hack attacks from a
completely different perspective. The hackers’ political motives and the public
humiliation of Sony raise the possibility of an entirely new approach to cyber-attacks,
which combine the hacker ideologies with "creative" expression
through a performance that humiliates its target while destroying data and
causing the organization to internally crumble into a state of inoperable
chaos. Instead of blowing up the studio, such hack attacks are doing equal
damage by inflicting malicious software that destroys a company’s operations,
while stealing data and private information. [more...]

I am struggling with a concept being espoused by economists,
central bankers, politicians, mainstream media and even the majority of talk
show hosts: the idea that falling gas prices will put more money in consumers'
pockets. For every $10 drop in oil GDP increases by 1/10th of a percent. Let's
start with the concept of more money in one's pocket. Example: I have a 20
gallon tank and decide to fill up at $4 per gallon. I carry $80 in cash in my
pocket and after I revive from the shock, all $80 has been passed to the
service station attendant leaving me with zero. It is all a zero sum game which
takes away from one to give to another. [more...]

The
price of oil has plummeted since June 2014. Brent crude oil went from
over $110 per barrel to about $61 per barrel, a remarkable drop of close to
50%. Its impacts are being felt around the world and watched closely by
governments, central bankers, financial markets, analysts, investors, and
others. Let's look at the reasons that help explain this precipitous
decline in oil prices, some of the impacts felt around the world, and whether American
citizens should be concerned. Let's start with the reasons for the huge
drop in oil prices that has occurred in the last six months. [more...]

Political
contributions from powerful special interests are more than gifts to favorite
candidates – they are often down payments for preferential treatment from
elected officials who accept the money. Teachers unions play the "purchase-a-politician"
game very well. A good example is the California Teachers Association, the
state's largest teachers union and a powerful player on the political scene. In
the 2010 and 2012 campaign cycles, the CTA doled out approximately $57 million
in campaign contributions. Almost all of that money went to Democratic
candidates. [more...]

Following
the release of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report on CIA interrogation
techniques, polls show that the nation is split in its opinion on the subject
matter over whether waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques
are ever justified and/or effective, but the majority does consent that the
tactics used are nevertheless various forms of torture. I agree. The
questionable ethics behind such actions are what make this media uproar so
enticing. The question becomes, "Should suspected terrorists have the same
legal rights as other criminals?" My general response to such a question
is no, but the hardest thing for me in admitting that is that my response is
fueled by fear, not by logic. [more...]

As
the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has reported, the President's budget,
the first one in a while, is a road map for "growth, opportunity and
fiscal responsibility." What the OMB fails to mention is that we have been
down this road many times before. "The budget invests in American
innovation... the development of clean energy alternatives." Apparently
Solyndra's default on a $535 million dollar loan guaranteed by the Department
of Energy wasn't disastrous enough. We need to once again fuel all those
wonderful clean energy alternatives. [more...]

Employees and employers across the country need to be
wary of the forced union ambush being promulgated by President Obama and his
big labor "gasping dinosaurs" and the radicals the President has
appointed at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The President is
utilizing "rule by fiat" to fundamentally transform America as he
promised when he was first elected, while also paying back his political
supporters. His motives are blatantly evident as seen by his recent actions
following the November elections to provide amnesty for illegal aliens (to
eliminate "racial injustice") and now through his radical pro-union
appointees to the NLRB pushing quickly for a "card check" style
system. [more...]

Monday, December 15, 2014

Another
ambitious attempt by Hollywood to produce a scripturally based film appears to
have missed the mark in a major way.

Director
Ridley Scott’s "Exodus Gods and Kings" has managed to rile political
liberals, disappoint film critics, and offend members of the three primary
religions that adhere to the Old Testament, an astounding feat considering its
big-screen Bible-based forerunner, director Cecil DeMille’s 1956 film "The
Ten Commandments," was a critically acclaimed box-office success, which
was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Despite an obvious mandate from the American public, the
Republican Party seems afraid to confront the bully on his unilateral action on
immigration. Why? Mainly so it doesn't lose the Hispanic vote, which could be
retained and increased.

Ironically, America is in the same position it was four
years ago and the Republican Party has the upper hand, but seems reluctant to
use it despite the mandate when all it has to do is do the right thing - appeal
and talk to all segments of the population on their turf and expose the Obama
Administration's true agenda of purely pandering for votes. Interestingly, even
the labor bosses are being very quiet about the President's amnesty order. They
must have come to the realization that such a path is not good for America, or
for the American worker! [more...]

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

The
author of Recarving
Rushmore, Dr. Ivan Eland,
says, "Historically, the post-9/11
U.S. government torture of detainees and other civil liberties violations--for
example, warrantless government surveillance on most Americans, detention of
suspects indefinitely without trial, the creation of kangaroo military
tribunals in lieu of civilian courts, the singling out of Muslims for
immigration violations and deportation, rendition of suspects to other
countries known for torturing prisoners, CIA secret prisons, and the Guantanamo
offshore prison in Cuba--may have been the worst constitutional scandal in
American history. George W. Bush started most of these unconstitutional
or illegal government activities, but Obama has continued most of the
practices, albeit with ameliorating developments in some cases. One major
area in which Obama claims to have reversed Bush policy is U.S. torture of
detainees, which was the subject of the damning Senate Intelligence Committee
report. Taken all together this civil liberties scandal has stretched over two
administrations and continues long after 9/11.

If
each presidential administration is examined in isolation, however, some
constitutional scandals rival this one, which stretches over two
administrations. As for political scandals, the Reagan administration's
Iran-Contra was probably the worst in American history, followed closely by
Watergate. As for scandals eroding civil liberties during wartime, the
incarceration in prison camps of approximately 100,000 Japanese residents and
Japanese-Americans by FDR during World War II for no good reason rivals
throwing people in jail for disagreeing with American wars--as was the case
during World War I under Woodrow Wilson and with the passage of the Alien and
Sedition Acts during the Quasi-War with France in the last years of 18th
century under the administration of John Adams."

The
hacking of Sony Pictures has taken on a new dimension of late. There are
reasons to believe that the cyber-attack against the entertainment company
sought the actual destruction of technology and data as opposed to the mere
taking of information. There is also a mounting stack of evidence, which
suggests that the totalitarian communist dictatorship of North Korea was
involved in the launching of the attack. Now when a foreign power sends out a
missile with the intended purpose of destroying property in the U.S., and the
power in question is successful in its nefarious activity, the occurrence is
considered to be an act of war. So what if a digital weapon, specifically
designed to destroy property located within the country, is launched by an adversary,
with the opponent likewise attaining success? Is this not, in effect, the same
thing, i.e., an act of war? [more...]

President
Obama has been the best thing that has happened to the Republican Party in very
recent history and has helped to drive home the point that, in all reality, it's
the current Democrat Party that is totally out of touch with the American
people. When the majority of Americans feel that the country is going in the
wrong direction and the president doubles down on his "direction" (or
lack thereof) after the affirmation of that fact in the 2014 election, it shows
he is out of touch. When the majority of Americans now feel that Obamacare was
a wrong move and the president won't work with both sides on fixing or amending
it, it shows how out of touch he is. When the majority of Americans feel like
our foreign policy is a failure and the president's jobs policies aren't really
working and he continues on the same course, that shows exactly how out of
touch he is. [more...]

Will
the Internet be censored in 2015? Or, will it continue to be free?
Will bloggers, news sites and others continue to have and exercise freedom of speech
over the Internet or will authoritative regimes take control of the
Internet, shutting down Web sites that disagree with their political agenda,
their political views, and their political repression? The current
administration has decided not to renew the contract the Federal
government has with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(better known as ICANN) in September 2015. Second, ICANN is the
non-profit California organization that oversees and administers the Internet's
DNS (Domain Name System). Third, without the system, the Internet might
degenerate into digital chaos. [more...]

You
know it's bad when the school employees admit even they wouldn't eat the food
they're serving to students. Wyoming's Sheridan County District One business
manager Jeremy Smith says his district dropped out of the National School Lunch
Program "because there were just too many complaints. Universally, it was,
'We are starving. We are hungry. This isn't enough food for us.' But we couldn't
blame them, because I looked at that school lunch and said, 'I wouldn't eat it
either,'" Smith says. The district saw a 20 percent spike in sales this
school year after it dropped the federal rules championed by First Lady
Michelle Obama. [more...]

Rice
is now eligible to sign with any NFL team. On Friday the NFL reinstated him
after he won an appeal of an indefinite suspension by the league. We knew we
would win his appeal because the NFL did not adhere to their policies. Double
jeopardy-styled legal situations are a big no-no in the U.S. judicial system. In
recent interview, Ray Rice spoke openly about the domestic violence incident.
He had received lots of additional critics following that first public speech
he made to the masses back in February, where he said everything except an
apology to his wife, while she said sorry for him instead. In retrospect both
were under legal situations and nerves. I get that, and Rice has stated that he
takes full responsibility for his actions. Ultimately, the man is hoping that
both the league and the general public will give him a second chance. The
couple keeps stressing that the domestic violence incident that was caught on
video in an elevator back in September was an isolated incident, which I find
very hard to believe. [more...]

For
the past six years, the mainstream media has been lauding the great recovery.
Again and again we are told that America is back and jobs are becoming
plentiful... college graduates are leaving entry level jobs to take the next
rung up on the employment ladder, or so the government says. Whether it is
jobs, housing, energy or drones, whatever the government says, the talking
heads repeat word for word. "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating
it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only
for such time as the State can shield people from the political, economic,
and/or military consequences of the lie." This quote came from Joseph
Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda under Adolph Hitler’s Tree of National
Socialism. [more...]

After the war, I had nightmares, I couldn't
sleep, couldn't digest normal food, but also my mind. The Army doctor suggested I write in the form
of a diary and put it away and forget about it so I could start a new life. Fortunately, I was invited to England - Lady
Copeland's home - I was able to spend every morning writing down my experiences
from 1939 through 1945. I was still having nightmares and having problems with
my body; I would wake up in the middle of the night throwing grenades standing
up on my bed, but it wasn't a grenade, it was a side lamp. I wrote my diary as a therapy for myself. I
was reliving it, but I knew it was good for me. Watch
Julian talking about PTSD, writing
therapy, and publishing his diary.

As
U.S. forces withdraw from parts of Afghanistan, the Taliban is making gains in
several areas of the country. The Afghan police and army are slowly giving way,
despite the United States spending 13 years and tens of billions of dollars
training those forces. When the United States completes its withdrawal from
ground combat at the end of this year, this unfavorable trend will undoubtedly
accelerate – that is, if the Afghan security forces don't collapse altogether,
as did similarly U.S.-trained Iraqi forces in that country. Thus, in the
longest war in American history, the U.S. military has failed to pacify
Afghanistan – as had the mighty British Empire three times in the 19th and
early 20th centuries and the Soviet superpower more recently in the 1980s. In
fact, an outside force has not pacified Afghanistan since Cyrus the Great of
Persia did it in ancient times.[more...]

The New York Times recently published the
home address of Police Officer Darren Wilson and his pregnant police officer
wife. Once they were publicly ridiculed for this reckless action, the paper
took down the story, but inexplicably left up the name of Darren Wilson’s
street address. Is The New York Times
trying to incite murder? How could any respectable journalist publish the
address of a police officer, knowing there are thousands of violent criminals
who'd like to kill him? Why would a newspaper purposely make Officer Wilson a
"marked man?" If someone kills Officer Wilson or his wife... or
mistakenly kills an entire family living in the home next door... isn’t The New York Times liable? [more...]

We're
asked to believe the addition of 5 million undocumented immigrants to an
overstressed job market will have no negative impact? According to some, the
unleashing of 5 million new undocumented immigrants into the workforce is
exactly the shot in the arm that we need. They will argue that many are already
in the system and the president has just brought them out of the shadows. The
fear of deportation has kept many from taking the kind of job that does require
legal paperwork. Now that that little item has been dispensed with, those
people can really do the kind of job that will secure their future. However,
that job already has the retiree in it - a college kid who needs it and now the
undocumented who wants it. The employer is salivating since his one job is in
high demand, meaning a wage that is nowhere near what it used to be. The law of
supply and demand has not been repealed and the addition, annually, of millions
of new college graduates and now millions of new undocumented immigrants prove
in the job market: the math doesn't work. [more...]

Westside
Community Schools have begun collecting student fingerprints for its school
lunch program. The school district has moved to a biometric identification
program, saying students will no longer have to use an ID card to buy lunch.
"Students lose their ID, they left it at home, it went through the washing
machine, there were all kinds of reasons why kids didn't have an ID and it took
a lot of time for them to fish it out of their pockets and holding their tray
at the same time," says Diane Zipay of Westside Nutrition Services.
"They never lose their finger." [more...]

Voting
fraud is (of course) illegal, but does it really happen here in the United
States? I always associated such devious acts as a civics nightmare only other
countries never seem capable of waking up to. Research suggests that voting
fraud is difficult to do in the US. If a person votes early, their name is
noted on the precinct registered and supplied to every polling place in the
parish. The names of those who vote on Election Day are checked off on the same
registers used on early voting dates. It greatly minimizes the potential
mishaps made when there are too many papers floating about. Hypothetically, any
attempt to vote twice would be caught immediately. [more...]

Amnesty
is not and never was about having compassion for Hispanics, despite Obama’s
ongoing defense over his executive action. It’s actually about creating a more
permanent lower class of uneducated and impoverished people who will vote in
the political favor of its creators blindly for generations to come. Why? Well,
there is a big, gaping loophole in the Affordable Care Act: President Obama’s
decision to grant temporary amnesty lasting 3 years to about 5 million (now
legal) immigrants makes them legally eligible for work permits, and yet
ineligible for public benefits, such as Obamacare. Under this policy, business
owners are required by federal law to provide their employees with health
coverage. Those who do not will be fined by the government, but since the 5
million newly legal immigrants are not allowed to have Obamacare, employers who
hire them will not have to pay the $3,000 penalty for not providing health
coverage. [more...]

There
is a real threat that censorship will replace Internet freedom in 2015.
According to several new articles, we learn the administration has decided
to give up control of the Internet in September 2015. Is it possible that
foreign governments, authoritative governments, will be able to censor American
Web sites as well as their own Web sites? Will Americans lose their freedom
of speech on the Internet? Is the First Amendment about to be further
damaged and eroded? How can this happen? What can be done to
prevent it? For more information on how America is losing freedom and how we
can get it back, please read my new book: Renewing America and Its Heritage
of Freedom: What Freedom-Loving American Can Do to Help. [more...]

Major
Hollywood powerhouse Sony Pictures is involved in an ongoing investigation of a
recent hack attack, which knocked out the studio's network and resulted in all
of its employees' computer monitors being able to only display an image of a
glowing red skeleton along with some vague demands. This may not have been an
ordinary cyber onslaught. Sources told the tech site Re/code that Sony
executives are looking into whether the attack is somehow connected to the
government of North Korea via operatives in China. [more...]

Obama
has cut a deal with Turkey's Erdogan to set up a no-fly zone over Syria,
ostensibly to protect civilians. The additional potential of utilizing
Turkish airbases will help to create more U.S. "heroes." Contrary to
popular belief, Japan did not bomb Pearl Harbor in order to invade California
and set up a series of Benihanas. The Land of the Rising Sun was a
militaristic dominated country. However, they were sorely lacking in natural
resources, thus their expansionist policies of the '30s and direct
confrontation with the Western powers. Our President has never backed up a
so-called line in the sand; however, with Turkey as part of the enforcement for
the no-fly zone, it is not difficult to believe that it is only a matter of
time before a Russian soldier becomes a "hero." [more...]

This
president has now given illegals - yes, the people who came here by breaking
the law - a leg up over hard-working, tax-paying Americans. One of the first
in-your-face insults was him pushing states to give in-state tuition to
illegals. These people are here illegally, breaking the law and not paying
taxes. It just shows his disdain for the American way of life. Veterans can't
even get the same privileges. They have to live in a state for the state's
designated residency period before they are considered a resident who qualifies
for in-state tuition. Maybe they should renounce their citizenship and run up
from south of the border into the arms of California Governor Jerry Brown who
recently told all illegals (and anyone thinking about coming to America
illegally) to come to California, that they are welcome here! The Constitution
guarantees equal access to succeed, not a guarantee for equal success. [more...]